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June 8: Crepe myrtle
Jun. 8th, 2010 11:01 pmThe crepe myrtles have been blooming for a few weeks now, but I've noticed for the first time this year that the different colors start blooming at different times. First came the white blooming trees, and recently I've seen a few of the light pink ones blooming. Later in the summer and right into fall, the dark pink ones will be going strong.
It isn't hard to see how crepe myrtles got their name. Each flower center is surrounded by petals on long thin stalks that flare out into a round, crinkly, papery petal.
The individual flowers are hard to see, though, because they grow together in large conical clumps all over the tree.
Crepe myrtles can be pruned so that they grow as shrubs, or left alone and they'll grow into medium-sized trees with smooth, grey-brown bark that flakes off and leaves smoother white splotches. My first memory of crepe myrtles is from when I visited the site of the Branch Davidian/ATF standoff at Mount Carmel near Waco, Texas. By the time I visited, it had been converted to a memorial site, sort of, and on a dry, sunny slope near the entrance, one crepe myrtle had been planted for each church member, child, and ATF agent who had died there. I was unimpressed with the shrubby, leggy little trees, but now I know that they were a good choice for the climate, and the blooms persist all summer.
It isn't hard to see how crepe myrtles got their name. Each flower center is surrounded by petals on long thin stalks that flare out into a round, crinkly, papery petal.
The individual flowers are hard to see, though, because they grow together in large conical clumps all over the tree.
Crepe myrtles can be pruned so that they grow as shrubs, or left alone and they'll grow into medium-sized trees with smooth, grey-brown bark that flakes off and leaves smoother white splotches. My first memory of crepe myrtles is from when I visited the site of the Branch Davidian/ATF standoff at Mount Carmel near Waco, Texas. By the time I visited, it had been converted to a memorial site, sort of, and on a dry, sunny slope near the entrance, one crepe myrtle had been planted for each church member, child, and ATF agent who had died there. I was unimpressed with the shrubby, leggy little trees, but now I know that they were a good choice for the climate, and the blooms persist all summer.